1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to portable terminals using short messaging. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for creating a short message using short message service (SMS) by a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the relatively recent advent of portable terminals, such devices are now considered by many to be an essential part of modern society. Portable terminals provide various functions for the convenience of the user, into addition to a voice call function. A short message service (SMS), now one of the main functions of a portable terminal, is widely used for communication between terminal users, and can be referred to as “text messaging”. Occupying communication channels in non-real time, the SMS is advantageous in that its communication costs are low and channel occupancy time is brief. Also, while it is preferable to deliver the message as soon as possible, there is no requirement for a real-time communication. In addition, the SMS is advantageous in that accurate content can transferred via a simple sentence and a message can be recorded and stored so as to be repeatedly read, forwarded, etc. With such user convenience, the usage rate of the SMS portable terminal users is increasing.
In general, a user creates a message by using a keypad or a touch screen of a portable terminal. The keypad and the touch screen are configured as a keyboard in a 3×4 form or a QWERTY form. The user creates words one by one by using the keyboard, and in this case, creating every word one by one with the keyboard is quite inconvenient and cumbersome. In fact, both the 3×4 form and the QWERTY form have drawbacks in that the 3×4 keyboard sometimes requires multiple pressing of keys to select a single letter, and the QWERTY keyboard is very small on a portable terminal.
In particular, there may be a general phrase (or sentence), words frequently used by the user, emoticons, etc., in creating a short message, so newly inputting them each time through the keyboard wastes time for the user. In fact, many users, particularly the younger users, try to shorten the time it takes to create a message by abbreviating the text using single letters for some words, such as “c” for “see” and “U R” for “You are”, etc. However, sometimes the abbreviated text is not completely understood at the receiving end.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a method that improves the convenience of sending short messages with a portable terminal.